b
extensive of these belts being 20 to 30 miles wide, and lying near the eastern margin of the middle region.
The Tertiary (and Quaternary,) occupies the eastern champaign section, and consists mainly of beds of uncompacted clays, sands and marls, belonging to the lower and middle divisions, (Eocene and Miocene,) which are every where filled with exuviae and bones of marine animals, constituting an inexhaustible resource of manurial matter.
MINERALS
Are found in great variety and abundance over a large part of the State. Among the more useful and important, are the following: Marl, Iron, Coal, Peat, Limestone, Gold, Copper, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Mica, Graphite and Corundum; besides- Manganese, Kaolin, Fireclay,. Talc, Agalmatolite, Whetstone,, Grindstone and Millstone grits, a great variety of building stones, Serpentine, Marble, Chromic Iron, Barytes, Oil Shales,. Buhrstone, Roofing Slates and several precious stones, as Diamond, Garnet, Sapphire, Ruby, Beryl and Amethyst.
Marl is found only in the eastern region, but is very abundant in some 25 counties, occurring in extensive superficial beds, which contain all the elements of a complete and permanent fertilizer, an occasional dressing, (once in 15 or 20 years,) being sufficient to render a poor soil permanently productive. This is the most valuable mineral in the State, as it is easily accessible to more than half of the farming lands, and is applicable to all crops.
Iron. The.State contains a vast quantity of iron ore of every variety, distributed over a very wide area from the head of navigation on the Roanoke, for example, for nearly four hundred miles westward, to the extreme limit of the State, being found in workable quantities in not less than 30 counties. But a more important fact than the variety or the abundance, or the wide distribution of these ores is the remarkable purity of many of the deposits. Iron has.